View from the Cab: The farming game

By Kent Casson

I like to compare the growing season to a game broadcast.

We are now in the pre-game segment and it could be a long game ahead. Starting lineups feature the farm helpers and equipment used in the field. Next, we analyze the “keys to the farming game.” These would include ways to win out in the field with the proper market strategies and equipment maintenance. Predictions are made during this time too – such as what kind of season we will have.

While timeouts are usually reserved for commercials, our breaks are full of family time and other life events. What’s better than taking a commercial break on a live broadcast? The family showing up to the field to ride along or, perhaps, enjoying a meal in the cab. There’s nothing quite like family time no matter what time of year it is.

Next, it’s on to the actual game coverage. For those of us in farming, that means the growing season. Just as a play-by-play announcer watches for a ball to fall into the basket, farmers wait for their young crops to emerge and often worry about them nonstop throughout the summer months as they continue toward maturity. We often worry about too much or not enough rainfall, severe storms with hail and wind and what crop prices are going to do.

There’s no need for instant replay in our business. We can go back to our online accounts to see how much rain fell the night before on one of our farms that may be 20 miles away. We don’t even have to dump out a rain gauge anymore. We are constantly “replaying” memories in our minds of what we did wrong during planting season or want went well. It’s called trial and error.

Our halftime show comes in June and July when we are into the heart of the growing season – gazing over those fields of green and dreaming of a successful harvest still to come. Like players and coaches head to the locker rooms for a brief break, we head into the office to take a deep breath and maybe sneak in a nap or two before the nonstop harvest season arrives.

Postgame action starts when the combines roll in the fields. As we reap the rewards of our hard work, we recap the season in our minds. Though it is the postseason in fall, we still look ahead to the next season to see what we can do better and start the cycle all over again.

That is a broadcaster’s perspective of the farming year. Now, back to real life and preparing our planter for another spring season which should start any day now once the weather cooperates.